Game Of Thrones 'Has Made Fantasy Cool Again'

The Game Of Thrones cast say they are just as desperate as the audience to find out who will live and who will die in the new series.

Season 4's first episode - co-written by producers David Benioff and DB Weiss, and called Two Swords - was aired in the UK in the early hours of this morning, alongside the US cable channel HBO.

Iain Glen - who plays exiled knight Ser Jorah Mormont - told Sky News: "I've not kept up with the books so I'm not quite sure where it's all going.

Video:Thrones 'Makes Fantasy Cool'

"You just keep your fingers crossed that you are not going to be decapitated.

"It's such a lovely gig to be on and so far I'm still alive."

The new series has been surrounded with anticipation and hype to rival the biggest Hollywood movies.

"The huge success of Game Of Thrones is that it has brought fantasy fiction out of the world of the geek and made it cool again," says Mike Mulvihill, TV editor of The Times.

"It's TV on a scale that we've never seen before - epic proportions, Shakespearean story lines, tragedy, death, violence, sex. Everything you can wish for."

Game Of Thrones is based on the series of books by George RR Martin.

But the author has written just five of the seven planned novels so only he knows the direction the story is heading.

The TV series is being produced faster than the books are being written, which means eventually the producers will have a much greater influence on the storyline.

Video:New Game Of Thrones Trailer

The brutal, bloody ending to season 3 shocked audiences, leaving people desperate to find out what happens next.

Game Of Thrones is a minefield of morality, where it is often hard to distinguish the righteous from the corrupt.

HBO has spent hundreds of millions of pounds making the four series and has shot in multiple locations around the world including Northern Ireland, Morocco and Iceland.

Northern Ireland's First Minister Peter Robinson claims filming in places like the Causeway Coast and the Glens, Ballintoy and Murlough Bay, has benefitted the Northern Irish economy to the tune of approximately £65m.

Season 4's first episode will be repeated at 9pm this evening on Sky Atlantic HD.